Shattered Moonlight (Maeve and Dominic) novel Chapter 56

17

Julian’s POV

When I returned to the Silverfang Territory, the first people waiting for me were not Pack Elders or business allies.

They were Selene’s parents–Elder Hartwell and Luna Hartwell of the Whitestone Pack.

They stood in the receiving hall of my estate, their faces grim and unwelcoming, arms crossed like sentinels carved from

stone.

As I approached, my steps faltered.

I signaled my Beta to bring tea, trying to hold onto some shred of formality.

But the moment the cups touched the table. Elder Hartwell cut through the air like a blade.

“We heard you severed your Mate Bond with Selene,” he said, his voice low and sharp. “Explain.”

The question hit harder than any blow.

I motioned for them to sit.

They didn’t move.

I sank onto the edge of a chair, feeling smaller than I had since I was a boy facing the Pack Tribunal.

How could I even begin?

They had trusted me with their daughter.

When they agreed to our bonding, it hadn’t been for power or wealth.

It had been for her safety.

They had seen a male nearing thirty, clean of scandal, driven but loyal, and they believed–naively–that I would guard her heart as fiercely as I guarded my Pack.

And for a time, maybe I had.

Until I destroyed everything.

I opened my mouth to speak, but my voice cracked.

I swallowed, tried again.

‘I’m sorry,‘ I said, my throat raw.

‘I failed her.‘

I lowered my gaze to the floor, unable to meet their eyes.

Chapter 17

Every heartbeat in the silence between us felt like a hammer striking bone.

I forced myself to speak the truth.

All of it.

The way Claire had returned,

the way old regrets had twisted my judgment,

the way I had chased memories instead of protecting the present.

I told them about the seventy–eight missed calls.

About Selene bleeding alone on the side of a dirt road.

About the severance scroll signed in my own blood, blind and stupid.

When I finished, the hall fell into a silence so thick it was hard to breathe.

Then Elder Hartwell moved.

The slap landed before I even saw it coming.

A loud, brutal crack.

My head snapped sideways from the force of it.

The taste of iron filled my mouth, but I didn’t lift a hand to defend myself.

I stood still.

I accepted it.

I deserved worse.

Inside me, my wolf whimpered and lay flat against the ground, submitting fully, ashamed.

“You were given our daughter’s trust,” Elder Hartwell said, his voice trembling with rage.

‘And you shattered it.‘

“I know,” I rasped.

Luna Hartwell stepped forward, her voice like a winter wind cutting to the bone,

‘If anything happens to her,” she said, “your pack will answer for IL.

Panic seized me by the throat.

“No.” I said quickly, ‘She’s alive. She’s safe.”

Chapter 17

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I dragged in a breath, forcing myself to stand straighter.

‘She’s in Yoria,” I said. “At the Syndicate Research Center.”

I met their gaze finally, even though my vision blurred at the edges.

“She severed our bond cleanly.

She’s moved on.”

Luna Hartwell turned away, pressing her hand to her mouth, her shoulders trembling.

Elder Hartwell’s expression hardened further.

He stepped closer, his presence suffocating.

“Why didn’t she reach out to us?” he demanded.

I swallowed hard, shame flooding my veins.

“Because…”

The word caught.

I forced it out.

“Because in order to survive, she had to leave everything behind.”

Including me.

Including them.

I saw the blow land in their eyes even if no hand was raised this time.

Selene had cut all ties to the world that had failed her.

And it was my fault.

All my fault.

I watched helplessly as the Hartwells turned and walked away, their footsteps heavy with grief.

The heavy oak doors closed behind them with a hollow thud that echoed through the cavernous hall

And I stood there-

alone.

The sting of Elder Hartwell’s slap burned against my skin.

But the ache in my chest-

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